1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to electrical connectors and, more particularly, to a connector with an over-molded housing member.
2. Brief Description of Earlier Developments
U.S. Pat. No. 3,945,708 discloses an electrical connector with a premold and a molded cover. U.S. Pat. No. 4,865,562 discloses molding a strip onto contacts. Berg Electronics sells a right angle receptacle electrical connector known as the VHDCI. The housing of the connector is a multi-piece housing which must be carefully assembled with the electrical contacts to prevent damage to the contacts and, must still form a rigid holding of the contacts between housing pieces. A need exists for manufacturing a right angle receptacle connector that is easier and less expensive to manufacture. For connectors having contact ends at relatively small spacings or pitch, such as 0.4 mm or less, precision or tolerances must be very precise. Because of this, over-molding of housing components was not used. This is because contact ends could be disturbed by over-molding thereby preventing proper connection to other components. For example, the contact ends could be misaligned because of over-molding such that they are not easily inserted into an array of holes in a printed circuit board. As another example, the opposing contact ends on opposite sides of rows could be positioned too close to each other, thereby blocking an insertion path into a receiving area between the rows and possibly causing stubbing, or could be positioned too far away from each other, thereby preventing proper wiping, normal force or connection with a mating connector. It would be desirable to use over-molding of a housing component if these problems could be overcome.